Month: May 2009

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book. The second I picked up Oblivious Investing by Mike Piper, I was immediately reminded of Michael Mihalik’s excellent Debt Is Slavery. The two books have much in common. They’re written by people who aren’t personal finance gurus – instead, they just bring a lot …

A few years ago, I first read David Allen’s seminal book on time management, Getting Things Done (here’s the skinny on what it’s all about). To put it bluntly, it was an epiphany for me. Let me make it as clear as possible: without the insights from Getting Things Done, I would have never found …

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so this is a weekly series that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, as well as the five best posts from two years ago this week. I call …

Your brother is stuck in a small town a few states away. His wallet was stolen and he’s without a vehicle. “Help!” he cries! He needs some cash as soon as possible. What are you going to do to help him? Your daughter loses her job. She calls you up and begs for some help …

Whenever I see great deals on free range chicken or beef, I stock up without hesitation, filling our freezer with pounds of roast, tenderloins, chicken breasts (and other pieces… and whole chickens), fish fillets, steaks, and chops. You might open our freezer and see dozens of pounds of such cuts, purchased because we found an …

Two years ago (in those economic halcyon days before the so-called “Great Recession”), I wrote a short article entitled Is Not Spending Money Bad for the Economy? In it, I largely concluded (by my own logic) that not spending money – in other words, saving it – isn’t necessarily bad for the economy at at …

One of my favorite sections in what is undoubtedly my favorite personal finance book, Your Money or Your Life, discusses the process one can go through to find a job that is both high in integrity (meaning it’s actually in line with your values – you’re not selling your soul or killing your spirit by …

One common trap with buying in bulk is the fact that on some products, the higher volume version often has a higher cost per unit than the smaller version. For example, I recently spied two cans of tuna on the shelf at my local grocery store. The same brand (Starkist) featured a 5 ounce can …

Over the last week, I’ve been rolling out little changes to The Simple Dollar, mostly in an effort to make the site useable, and more are to come over the next few weeks. I don’t want to make a radical change to the site, but there are a lot of little things I’d like to …

My kitchen is often a laboratory around dinner time. I’m constantly striving to prepare a tasty meal for my family with healthy ingredients as quickly as I can. My kids and my wife combine for the ultimate test – if they both like it, it’s a success. If it’s fairly quick and healthy, it’s a …

My grandmother passed away a month ago and, frankly, I’m still reeling from it in some ways. She was a daily part of my life for my entire childhood, a regular phone companion, and a person I visited (at least) monthly, even though she lived four hours away. My mother took the loss even worse, …

Quite often, financially intelligent young professionals get out of school, start in the professional world, and actually stick quite strongly to the “spend less than you earn” mantra. They fund their Roth IRAs and their 401(k)s, but they still find themselves spending much less than they’re bringing in. And they wonder what’s next. “Fred” writes …

Each Monday, The Simple Dollar opens up the reader mailbags and answers ten to twenty simple questions offered up by the readers on personal finance topics and many other things. Got a question? Ask it in the comments. You might also enjoy the archive of earlier reader mailbags. As usual, we’ll start things off with …

Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity, personal development, or entrepreneurship book. Discover your passions and make a living from it. It’s an idea I talk about quite often on The Simple Dollar – and it often gets pooh-poohed by people who believe strongly in work-life separation, that you should do a …

All of us have things we don’t want and, at the same time, want or need other things. Usually, the transition between the two requires selling what you don’t want and buying what you want or need – but often, you lose value on both transactions. A better solution is bartering – exchange something you …

Eventually, every homeowner finds a sizable home improvement project that they’d like to tackle. Perhaps the project is rebuilding a deck. Maybe it involves putting new concrete in the driveway. Whatever it is, it’s big. You could tackle it yourself, but you’d be working on it after work for weeks, losing many, many hours that …

Many newer readers of The Simple Dollar haven’t been exposed to the hundreds of great articles in the archives of the site, so I’m starting a weekly series (on Saturday) that highlights the five best posts from one year ago this week, as well as the five best posts from two years ago this week. …

A few months ago, I posted about our decision to buy a Prius after the fact. Although I’d mentioned for months that we were actively car shopping, I waited until after the purchase to discuss it. And the flame war was mighty potent. The post currently sits at roughly 174 comments, about equally divided between …

Books worth budgeting for

My new book, The Simple Dollar: How One Man Wiped Out His Debts and Achieved the Life of His Dreams, is available in bookstores now. Check out some of the life-changing experiences the book has given readers!

Check out my book, 365 Ways to Live Cheap, available in bookstores everywhere! It's filled with 365 great tactics you can apply to your personal finances, from frugal tips to great ideas for managing your money.